Chatham Borough weighing reduced services vs. staffing costs

By Marianne Ivers
CHATHAM — In order to keep the borough budget from expanding, the council decided earlier this year to keep some vacancies in the Police and Public Works departments unfilled. The fall leaf pick up may be the first service impacted by the reduced manpower, the public learned this week.

Bob Venezia, director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), explained the effects of the staff shortage at the council meeting on Monday, June 28. Currently the department is “down by three people”, with one vacant position unfilled since last fall, an employee out with a long-term health problem and a loss of a grass management contract, Venezia explained. In total he calculates that the department is short by 120 man hours per week. However, during this past spring’s budget discussion the council approved the filling of one DPW vacancy this fall.

With the current situation the department will not be able to continue providing the same level of service as in previous years. “It’s getting serious,” Venezia said and explained that the lack of personnel has consequences with regard to services and keeping up with equipment maintenance tasks.

Venezia sent out a memo to the council outlining four options for dealing with the reduced staff and services. One option is to reduce each leaf collection team by one member. This would extend the leaf collection period by two to three weeks. Venezia said that the leaf collection equipment is also used for snow plowing. Early snow could cause problems for the leaf schedule.

The second option is to conduct leaf collection only every third week, as was done before last year, when the borough introduced a continuous leaf pick up schedule. However, in the past when the three week pick up schedule was in place residents also had the option to bag their leaves for weekly collections. The borough dropped the bag collection last year and thus has not factored this cost into its current budget.

The third option calls for a discontinuation of leaf pick up. However, the mulch area hours could be extended for residents’ leaf drop off. With the outsourcing of grass maintenance, this option would yield significant cost savings, Venezia said.

Councilman John Holman asked if the leaf pick up could be outsourced. “I can’t find anyone” to do it, Venezia explained.

The last option is to maintain last year’s leaf pick up program which, according to Venezia, received “positive feedback” from residents. However, with the current staff, other areas of the public works departments’ duties, including equipment maintenance, would suffer due to lack of manpower.

“We can’t let the equipment deteriorate,” Councilman Joe Marts said and pledged for a commitment to the DPW. “Residents are willing to underwrite the cost to keep up the services,” we can’t fail you or the community,” he said.

Council President James Collander said that staffing is a budget issue. “We want to add employees,” but caps cast discipline on us.

Councilman Bruce Harris noted that taller grass on Coleman Triangle may be a new reality. “Something’s got to give,” Councilman Jim Lonergan agreed.

The council is now pondering whether the vacant DPW position should be filled earlier than originally planned or find other creative ways to deal with the staffing shortage and the level of services provided. The council should have an answer at its July 12 meeting.